Elemental's Prelude 1
by Ed Ainsworth
Summary: The First Prelude leading to the Elemental's On-Going series. Brother Nature encounters a threat from his past, and I learn how to write summary's.


"_Celestial Insights"_

_She stumbles forwards, the servo's in her ankles trying to tighten the nano-rods that made up the ligaments of her semi-robotic form. She didn't manage it._

_As she fell onto the ground, Karima Shapander looked up through he brown eyes at the large creature baring down on her. She knew it's name as it's massive hands wrapped themselves around her arms, pulling her off the cold, damp surface of the road. It had started to rain about a minute before she fell over, exhausted from out-running this…machine._

_The devastation behind her was immense. Their battle had been incredible, she wasn't sure how it had survive this long given the energies she'd released, but it was still here, unscathed and waiting to destroy her. _

_Four blocks of destruction, half of the highway into the city, and fifteen buildings completely ruined. Forty-three buildings damaged, eight thousand shattered windows, two hundred and thirty destroyed cars and four deaths._

_Karima wasn't proud of what she'd done here, but she needed to do it, in order to escape with the information she's gleaned from this creature. Before she woke it._

_Seven foot tall, made from the hardest flesh she'd ever seen, and muscled beyond human ability, it was humanoid, but covered in markings that Karima's internal databases couldn't identify. The only thing her databases could uncover was the word "Celestial." A word that shut down her systems and woke the creature below._

_Gods help her now._

_Her head hung limp, lolling around on her shoulders, as the massive maw of the creature opened, starting to siphon off her knowledge. It stopped momentarily as two more massive creatures landed next to it. It released Karima, if only for a minute, onto the bonnet of a untouched car. The creatures conversed in Nucleotide words , before all opening their mouths to feed off Karima._

_She fainted as the great shadow cast itself over the scene._

**Aboard the Conquistador**

"That work out okay for you?" Mark Diering, otherwise known as Brother Nature rolled to the other side of the bed, and turned the light on. Sweat ran off his body in rivulets and his hair was a matted mess of moisture and hair gel.

"Christ." Serafina, member of the Children of the Vault, and the object of Brother Nature's current affections laid flat on her body, equally as drenched in her own excitement. She stared at the ceiling and didn't utter another word for a few minutes.

"There's a reason they call you "Nature" then? Because you certainly made mine rise." She said, eventually sitting up, and pushing some of her soaking wet hair from her face.

"I live to serve." He replied sarcastically.

She laid back down in the bed, and watched him leave. Completely naked into the halls of the Conquistador. He reviewed the information he had in his head as he walked down towards the lower levels.

**Children of the Vault - A group of genetically altered humanoids, based on elemental abilities. A scientist, whose name has been removed from the "Books of the Vault" had isolated mutagenic genes and other information in order to grow the perfect group of soldiers possessing the powers of the elements themselves. Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and the list goes on, to include other "Elemental's", Electricity, even Technopathy. Apparently, there is a Child expression of every elemental power living somewhere on the planet, so far only six have been discovered.**

Mark arched his top lip in annoyance. They'd agreed to help him with his "duty" if he would help them find their missing brothers and sisters. He said yes at the time because he had no way of getting about, but since he left University for the second time, the children's method of transport had been rendered somewhat redundant. He'd made so many contacts over his travels, this had to be the slowest method he could acquire.

He wasn't just a park ranger who could control the elements any more.

"Hey Mar….CHRIST!" Perro, a huge mountain of a man, turned his attention to the floor, letting his face drop away quickly. He didn't want to be staring at another man's privates.

"Wear some damn clothes, Mark." He spat, as Aguja poked her head around the door, her eyes bulging.

"Room Sixteen, Mark. One-Six." She dribbled.

The sound of panting came from down the corridor, as Fuego, a man made entirely from fire rounded the corner. He stopped, ignoring the fleshy parts of Mark and pointing towards the stairwell.

"Cadena and Sangre want to see you, Mark." He said, putting his hands on his knees and bending over. Just because he was made of fire didn't mean he didn't feel fatigue.

He shook his head, and walked past the group, heading up the stairwell towards the command decking. What was it this time?

"What is it this time? Can't you manage this without me? I'm in the middle of someone." Cadena rolled her eyes, and pointed towards the devastation below them.

"So?" He asked. Why did he have to get involved, it wasn't like he was a Superhero? He was just a guy with super-powers trying to protect the planet. Not jumping off buildings to punch people wearing blue and yellow all the damn time.

"They're Celestial Gatherers, Mark." Sangre spoke up, pointing to the computer screen he was sat in front of. He was a thin blue man, with darker blue circles over his body. Every time his mouth moved, his liquid body rippled with intent and emotion.

"You're fucking kidding me." Mark asked, his voice dropping a few octaves as he broke into a run out of the room, grabbing a Blue-Tooth hands free from the side and pushing it into his ear.

"Serafina, you connected?"

Mark? What's going on?

"Too long to explain, Okay? I just need to stay in contact and call you guys in as and when I need you. Cadena and Fuego and Aguja, okay? Nobody else. You stay where I can talk to you, and keep Sangre and Perro locked down, alright?"

He reached the top deck, his anger and frustration beginning to reach a head. Rain clouds gathering above the flying boat, spitting his annoyance onto the world below.

He reached the ledge of the boat, leaping over the guard rail and entering free-fall. Still completely naked.

Fists raised, he hurtled towards the central Gatherer, his rage manifest in the lightning above, and increasing winds blowing rubbish and loose dirt from the city streets.

**Celestial Gatherers - Automated hounds of the Celestial's designed to Gather information and genetic test subjects for the Celestial's experiments. Previously thought in active, they were last encountered three years ago, by Brother Nature, and beaten, but just barely, before it was transformed into the entity called Requiem (Current Whereabouts, Unknown.)**

He ploughed into the back of the first Gatherer, sending it crashing into the bonnet of the car where Karima lay, launching her into Mark's arms, as he vaulted backwards, a burst of wind jetting from behind him knocking the other two robots off balance.

He landed on a slick roof, and set Karima down, narrowing his eyes at the Gatherer.

"Sera, Aguja needs to come down to collect the robot one. Fuego, and Cadena, on my mark, I want you to bring down the heavens."

He turned on his heels and leapt forwards, a kick slamming his body, and as much force as he could muster, into the second Gatherer, while the third swung a car through the air, hitting Mark in the body and sending him hurtling across the wet streets. He hit a lamp-post, bending it and ripping it free of it's moorings.

"Christ...That hurt." He said, rubbing some glass from his hair, as the fire and lightning from the Conquistador rained down.

Mark broke into a run, the napalm enriched with electrical power caused huge explosions, as it hit the cars and Gatherer's themselves. The first explosion of the nearest car threw Mark forwards, glass dotting the back of his body, leaving tiny trickling trails of blood over him, while the second threw him into the air.

He landed face first in another car, and weakly turned to see two Gatherer's walking towards him. The third had fallen, it's flesh melted off and destroyed from the destruction that had come from the Conquistador.

The two automaton's moved forwards, as Mark got to his feet, feeling his temper begin to rise. The first machine threw a punch forwards, which Mark avoided by pulling his body down low. Summoning a ball of lighting in the centre of his fist, he threw it upwards, smashing into, and through, the androids shoulder, bursting out the other side, and releasing the remaining energy in it's face.

It stumbled, as he cracked his knuckles, using the wind and rain to his advantage. He blew himself into the air, and landed on the second gatherer's shoulders, driving his fists downwards into the back of the creations head and digging his fingernails into the back chassis. He closed his eyes and summoned upwards, with all the force he could manage, a spire of stone, that shot through it's centre, and cause it to explode, rather violently in half.

Mark, once again was thrown through the air. This time, he found it increasingly more difficult to get to his feet. He looked up, as the metal itself eroded away, and the "flesh" fell from it's rusting body. The blindfolded woman that stood, soaked in the rain smiled and walked towards Mark.

"Brother Nature...Mark." She spoke in perfect English, except for her slight German accent.

"Hi Katja." He kissed her on the forehead, and leaned heavily on her. "Pleasure to see you at such short notice, someone call you in?"

"Ja, Serafina. She is a sweet girl, Mark. Treat her well." Katja said, pulling him up onto his feet, as she exchanged some of her organ cellular structure to boost her own muscular power.

**Katja Meier – Biopath – A metahuman with a complete understanding of Biology and Biopathy. She is able to directly communicate with Cells, and understand the cellular structure of most Organic compounds found on Earth. She has recently begun to experiment with creating things from cells, with her mind, as well as destroying them. Katja is a long time friend of Mark, and lectured a few times as the various Universities he's attended.**

With Mark and Katja on the Conquistador, they sat in the Medical bay. Karima lay, motionless on a bed while Serafina completed her connections. She was going to attempt to connect to the databases within Karima, while Katja monitored her life signs.

"Thanks for coming, Katja." Mark said again, wrapping some more gauze around his burnt fist. Electricity wasn't meant to be wielded. Aguja gently removed the final pieces of glass from his back, but with every yank, Mark winced with pain.

"Try and sit still, Mark." Aguja said with mock frustration, she enjoyed being this close to his naked body. She was very jealous of Serafina.

"What do we have to learn then?" Katja asked, removing her blindfold to reveal her true eyes. Glowing Ameoboid constructs, that moved around in her sockets in unnatural and unnerving ways.

"Well, she appears to be asleep at the moment. Near as I can tell, she is unable to feel the pain of the robotic parts against her, though there are not a lot of nervous connections. Likely, she is unable to control them as well as she would like." Katja began, turning her attention to Karima before returning it to Mark.

"Yeah..." He said, looking straight into her eyes. They were deeply disturbing. Eyes should never move that way, and although he had gotten used to it in their time together, he still felt slightly antsy when they weren't covered. He handed her the blindfold.

"Might be for the best." He said, turning his attention to Serafina.

"Sera, what you got?" He asked, as Serafina and Karima both turned to look at him.

"She's awake." They said in unison, as Serafina slowly removed her connections.

"Great." Mark said, walking towards the bed.

"My name is Mark Diering, I'm called Brother Nature, and I'm not going to beat around the bush here. Why did the Gatherer's want you." He leaned forwards, Serafina putting her hand on his heavily bandaged back.

"I...I know things they don't want me to know." Karima said after a few minutes of hesitation.

"Her memory is flawed." Katja said, watching Karima's reactions.

"Shit. They got to you, didn't they?" Mark ran a hand through his dark hair, and leant backwards.

"All right, this is fine still. They got some of your memories, do you remember what exactly you knew, or where you got it from?" He asked her blank stare.

"I got it when I found the Gatherer, I knew it was a machine immediately. We found it at a dig site in India. I was supposed to be a consult on the construction of something, I can't remember what, in it's place, but we needed to excavate the foundations first. I connected to it, and I knew...everything it knew. I knew..that the reason they want me was..."

She paused, looking across the faces of the people in the room.

"Why am I in America?" She asked, looking directly at Mark.

"I don't know." He said simply, shrugging his shoulders.

"Why is she here?" She pointed towards Katja.

"She got called." Mark responded

"And she's from Germany? How did she get here so quickly."

Mark paused for a moment and turned to look at Katja.

"She does have a good point. How DID you get here so quickly?"

"I reformed myself from detritus found in a apartment block. I am sixteen thousand different people's skin cells..."

Serafina shuddered and raised her hand.

"All right, that's fine. I don't want to hear any more about that sort of shit."

"Interesting." Mark offered, before turning back to Karima.

"Come on, what do you know? Why are you valuable to them?" It was clear he was staring to loose his patience. He dropped off the edge of the bed and began to pace, trying to think.

"Was it something to do with the Machine itself? It's Purpose?"

"No, I don't think..." She offered, scratching the side of her head.

"Was it something to do with the Deviant's? Eternal's? Hell, even the Celestial's themselves..."

"That's it! I know when the Celestial's are coming again!"

Mark's face dropped and he walked over to Karima, gripping her face in his hands.

"Tell me now, or we're going to die."

To Be Continued as Part of an On-Going Series!


End file.
